History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 105

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retained. His fellow officials are: Hon. John I. Bender, president; W. C. Hefner, vice president; and Frank Amos, assistant cashier, the board of directors consisting of the following: John I. Bender, G. D. Marple, C. A. Wade, H. B. Marshall, E. A. Stockert, W. C. Hefner, F. G. Hoover, Frank Amos, John M. Marple, R. D. Dennison and W. G. Wilson. This is one of Braxton County's sound and reliable institutions, and Mr. Marshall has contributed to its success in no small degree.

In 1902 Mr. Marshall was united in marriage with Miss Matilda Gilbertson, who was born at Blair, Nebraska, where she was educated in the public schools, and who first met her future husband while on a visit to relatives at Cairo, West Virginia. Three children have come to this union: Helen B., born September 23, 1903, a graduate of the Burnsville High School; Virginia May, born August 9, 1915; and a son that died in infancy in 1907. Mr. and Mrs. Marshall are members of the Methodist Protestant Church, Mr. Marshall being a member of the official board and a contributor to all religious movements. As a fraternalist he holds membership in Burnsville Lodge No. 87, A. F. and A. M., is a past noble grand of Burnsville Lodge No. 252, I. O. O. F., and belongs to the Grand Lodge of that order. In politics he is a republican.

WILLIAM CLAUDE HEFNER. Braxton County has always held its own among its sister counties of West Virginia for high rank in her banking system, and in this field of activity the business is represented at Burnsville by many men of high standing and of more than local prominence. Among the men, alert and enterprising, who during recent years have utilized the opportunities offered for business preferment and attained thereby success, one whose career is typical of modern advancement is William Claude Hefner, vice president of the Burnsville Exchange Bank. Mr. Hefner's career has in the main been devoted to the pursuits of agriculture, but his business judgment and foresight are greatly appreciated by his associates in the banking field.

Mr. Hefner was born on the farm which he now owns at Burnsville, May 28, 1864, and is a son of William S. and Rachel McNiel (Wallace) Hefner. His father was born in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, November 20, 1817, and his mother, in Pocahontas County, this state, August 12, 1820. William S. Hefner was reared on a farm in Green- brier County and received only a limited education, the most of which was self gained. As a youth he left home and went to Pocahontas County, where he learned the black- smith trade and for four years conducted a shop. He made a success of this venture, was married in Pocahontas County, and then came to Braxton County and purchased the nucleus for a farm, a part of which is now included in the property of his son William C. From a small beginning William S. Hefner became the owner of a tract of 560 acres of splendid farming land, and at one time was the largest taxpayer in the northern end of Braxton County. He was one of the pillars of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the move- ments of which he supported with a willing hand and an open purse, and throughout his life he was at all times ready to go to the assistance of the poor or the bedsides of the sick. Fraternally he was affiliated with Sutton Lodge No. 21, A. F. and A. M., and at the time of his death was the first member of Weston Lodge. His political belief made him a democrat. The fact that his own education had been neglected always made him a stanch friend of the public schools, and for a number of years he served as a member of the local Board of Education. He and his worthy wife were the parents of eleven children, of whom seven survive in 1922: B. L., who is engaged in blacksmith- ing at Burnsville, where his father conducted a shop for many years in connection with his farming operations; Samuel, who is a resident of Missouri; M. W., of Burns- ville; William Claude, of this record; Edna, the wife of A. J. Knight; J. B., of Clarksburg, West Virginia; and Rachel, the widow of Hugh Amos.

William C. Hefner was reared on the home farm, on a part of which he still makes his home, and acquired his education through attendance at the rural schools. His schooling completed, he began farming in association with

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his father, and remained in this connection until he was twenty-three years of age, when he decided he would like to have a view of the western country. Accordingly, the next year was passed in the West, after which he returned to the home place and spent one year in agricultural pursuits. Following this he ventured into mercantile pursuits at Burnsville, and during the next years was a successful mer- chant, but the call of the country proved too strong, and at the end of that time he disposed of his holdings and re- turned to the farm. Since that time he has been engaged in agricultural operations with much success, and at the pres- ent time has 195 acres of valuable land, all in a high state of cultivation and with the latest modern buildings and sub- stantial improvements. Mr. Hefner is also interested in the oil and gas business in this region, where he has some valuable holdings, represented by producing and paying properties. He is a vice president and a member of the board of directors of the Burnsville Exchange Bank, in which he is likewise a heavy stockholder, and through his wise counsel and business acumen has contributed materially to its success.

On January 24, 1899, Mr. Hefner was united in marriage with Miss Mary Hamilton, who was born and reared in Highland County, Virginia, where she was educated in the public schools, and was still a young woman when brought to West Virginia by her parents. Of their children nine are still living in 1922, as follows: Elizabeth, a graduate of the Burnsville High School, who took a short normal course at Sutton and is now a primary teacher in the Burnsville public schools; Wallace Hamilton, attending Marshall College at Huntington; Leah, a graduate of the Burnsville High School; Mary, who is attending high school; and Lorena, Charlotte, Marjorie, Rachel and Lillian. The family be- longs to the Methodist Episcopal Church, Mr. Hefner being a member of the official board, on which he succeeded his father. As a fraternalist he holds membership in Burnsville Lodge No. 87, A. F. and A. M .; and Burnsville Lodge No. 92, K. P., in which he is a past chancellor and a member of the Grand Lodge. In politics he is a democrat. Like his father, he has taken a genuine and helpful interest in school matters, having been a member of the Board of education for the past seventeen years, and was the original promoter of the movement which resulted in the building of the high school at Burnsville.

EMERY B. DUFFIELD. It was at a time when development and progress were just reaching their full force that Emery B. Duffield located at Burnsville. He had already demon- strated business ability and shown foresight in fostering and furthering enterprises in several sections where he had a tentative home, but it was not until he located at Burns- ville that he permitted his progressive ideas full scope for expression which resulted in the founding and solid upbuild- ing of a successful hardware enterprise. Like many another successful man, he began at the bottom of the ladder, being first a rural school teacher, and when he left that calling worked with his hands, a fact of which he has never been ashamed.

Mr. Duffield was born on a farm in Braxton County, West Virginia, November 17, 1873, and is a son of Jonathan and Martha (Hamric) Duffield. His father was born in the same neighborhood, in 1848, and received his education in the country schools, following which he helped his father on the home farm until his marriage to Miss Hamric, who was born in his home locality in 1844, and who, like ber husband, had a common school education. Following their marriage they settled on a farm situated nine miles south- west of Sutton, where Mr. Duffield through industry and good management accumulated a good property, on which he installed valuable and substantial improvements and there rounded out a long, useful and worthy life, passing away in 1900, when fifty-two years of age. A man of integrity and public spirit, he had the respect and esteem of his fellow citizens. He was a democrat in his political allegi- ance. His religious faith was that of the Baptist Church, to which belongs Mrs. Duffield, who survived him at the ad- vanced age of seventy-eight years. They were the parents of four children, of whom three are living in 1922: Henry

C., of Sutton; Tabitha, the wife of J. E. Baughman, of that city and Emery B.

Emery B. Duffield received his education in the pub- lic schools and resided on the home farm until he was twenty-seven years of age. In the summer months he as- sisted his father, but in the winter terms, from the time he was sixteen years of age, he taught in the neighborhood schools, and became widely and popularly known as an educator. In 1903 he was elected superintendent of schools of Braxton County, an office which he filled with credit until 1907, in which year he located at Sutton and estab- lished himself in the insurance business. This venture occupied his time and attention until 1912, in which year he came to Burnsville and established himself in the hard- ware business, a line which he has followed with gratifying success to the present time. In his modern and well- arranged establishment Mr. Duffield carries a full line of shelf and heavy hardware, furnaces, stoves, tinware, etc., and enjoys a large trade, attracted alike by the modern stock, the popular prices and the genial 'and obliging na- ture of the proprietor. Among his associates Mr. Duffield is accounted a strictly reliable and capable man of busi- ness and one who has succeeded through none of the prac- tices of the business charlatan, but along strictly legitimate channels of trade.

On December 27, 1902, Mr. Duffield was united in mar- riage with Miss Nettie Shaver, and to this union there were born two sons: Vaughn H. and Henry K., the for- mer now attending Broaddus College. Mrs. Duffield died in February, 1908, and Mr. Duffield married Miss Cora Dulin. They have two daughters; Ethel and Martha. Mr. and Mrs. Duffield are members of the Baptist Church, in which he is a deacon and clerk, and in the work of which he has been helpfully active. As a fraternalist he holds membership in Crystal Lodge No. 125, I. O. O. F., and the Grand Lodge. His political sentiments cause him to sup- port the democratic party.

HON. GARNETT KERR KUMP, of Romney, lawyer and for eight years a member of the State Senate, has been a leader in educational and good roads legislation, and one of the very useful and progressive citizens of his section of the state.

He was born near Capon Springs, Hampshire County, West Virginia, December 9, 1875, son of Benjamin Frank- lin and Margaret Frances (Rudolph) Kump and a lineal descendant of Henry Kump, a soldier of the Revolution. His father was a confederate soldier in Company K of the Eighteenth Virginia Cavalry, and after the war lived on his farm in Hampshire County, where he was a leader in civic and religious affairs.

Garnett Kerr Kump acquired a good literary education and for a number of years applied himself to the vocation of farming in summer and teaching in public schools dur- ing the winter. He prepared for the bar in West Virginia University, leaving the university about April 1, 1909, and since then has enjoyed an exceptionally good practice at Romney. Besides his law practice he has some business interests and investments, and is president of the South Branch Tie & Lumber Company.

His public service began early in his career, and he repre- sented Hampshire County in the House of Delegates in the session of 1905. His eight year term in the Senate rau from December 1, 1912, to December 1, 1920, and he was not a candidate for re-election. He represented the Fif- teenth Senatorial District and in the Legislature as well as in his capacity as a private citizen he has been thoroughly progressive in thought and action. He is a democrat, and has been keenly interested in the great national and inter- national problems of the last few years. Mr. Kump is convinced that he would have made an effective soldier of the nation during the World war, but the examining author- ities rejected his application for the Officers' Training Camp and also on several other occasions when he endeav- ored to enlist.

Mr. Kump is affiliated with the Masonic Order, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows and Woodmen of the World. Since 1911 he has been a member of the Romney Literary

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ociety, one of the oldest organizations of the kind in the ate, it having been incorporated by the State of Virginia y special act of Legislature in 1819. He is an elder in ne Presbyterian Church of Romney.

EDMUND SEHON is president of the Sehon, Stevenson & ompany, Incorporated, wholesale grocers, one of the very arliest wholesale houses established at Huntington and a usiness that has been steadily asociated with the remark- ble growth and expansion of that city during the last three ecades. No one could surpass Mr. Sehon in pride and sat- faction over the achievements of Huntington, and for ears he has been counted one of the city's most enthusi- stie and substantial boosters.

Mr. Sehon, who is one of the advisory editors of this istory of West Virginia, was born in Mason County this tate, September 14, 1843, son of John Leicester and Ag- es (Lewis) Sehon. His mother, Agnes Lewis, was a randdaughter of Col. Charles Lewis, who was killed at he battle of Point Pleasant in 1774, a battle described 1 the pages of West Virginia history as one of the most ecisive conflicts on the American frontier.

Mr. Sehon acquired his education at Westchester, Pennsyl- ania, and early took up the study of law and began prac- icing soon after the close of the Civil war. In 1868 he ras elected state's attorney of Greenbrier and Mercer ounties, but in 1870 he returned to his native county of Iason. In 1875 he was elected a member of the Legisla- are. Mr. Sehon has been a resident of Huntington since 890, in which year he organized the wholesale firm of ehon, Stevenson & Company. This was the second whole- ale house in Huntington and is a business that is justly egarded as one of the most important units in Huntington 's rowing greatness as a commercial center.

Mr. Sehon was elected mayor of Huntington in 1915, and as head of the municipal government for three years. He as been an active factor in the Huntington Chamber of ommerce and practically every other organization designed promote the effective growth and development of the ity. He is a democrat, has been a member of the B. P. O. lks since 1913, and for half a century has been a working member of the Episcopal Church and now vestryman nd senior warden of Trinity Church at Huntington.

June 30, 1870, in Greenbrier County, Mr. Sehon married 'lizabeth Jane Stuart, daughter of Robertson Stuart, whose randfather Col. John Stuart was one of the earliest pio- eers of Greenbrier County. Mr. and Mrs. Sehon have four hildren: Lucy, wife of J. M. McCoach; John Leicester ho married Lillian Gragard; Bess, wife of M. N. Cecil; nd Douglas, unmarried.

HON. WELLS GOODYKOONTZ began the practice of law at Williamson in 1894. The range and importance of his law ractice, his substantial interests in the community, were le solid foundation for his public and political career, and or all his varied and active service in the State Legislature nd in the halls of Congress he is still actively connected ith his profession and his business at Williamson.

Mr. Goodykoontz was born near Newbern, Pulaski County, irginia, June 3, 1872, son of William M. and Lucinda K. Woolwine) Goodykoontz. His paternal ancestor, Hans eorg Gutekunsh, immigrated to this country in 1750 and ought through the Revolution. His grandfather on his other's side, Robert MeCrum Woolwine, was born near everly in Randolph County. He attended good schools and ad the fortune of coming under the supervision of some ery able educators. At Oxford Academy in Virginia he as under John K. Harris, a graduate of Williams College nd a Presbyterian minister. At Floyd, Virginia, he read w under Judge Z. T. Dobyns, and in Washington and Lee niversity he came under the instruction of John Randolph ucker and Charles A. Graves. Mr. Goodykoontz was licensed practice June 9, 1893, and established himself at William- on February 23, 1894. He began his career as a lawyer at Williamson when the great coal industry of that section as just being developed. At the present time he is a nior member of the law firm of Goodykoontz, Scherr & laven. Mr. Goodykoontz became a member of the bar of

the Supreme Court of West Virginia on April 1, 1896, and was admitted to practice as "an attorney and counsellor" in the Supreme Court of the United States, December 13, 1909. His standing and popularity with the profession are indicated by the fact that he was chosen president of the West Virginia Bar Association in July, 1917.

Since its founding he has been president of the National Bank of Commerce of Williamson. It was one of the first banking institutions founded in that region. It was started as a state bank. Since 1911 the same has operated under a national charter and under the above name. The pros- perity of this section is reflected in the comparative bank deposits. Its deposits aggregated about $450,000 in 1915 and at the beginning of 1921 were over $1,400,000. Mr. Goodykoontz is the president of the Kimberling Land Com- pany and the Burning Creek Land Company, and a director in several other corporations engaged in local enterprises.

Mr. Goodykoontz had been a successful lawyer nearly twenty years before he became a candidate for public office. Mingo County sent him to the House of Delegates in the sessions of 1911-12, and in 1914 he was nominated without opposition by the republican party for the State Senate. He was chosen to represent the Sixth Senatorial District, comprising McDowell, Mingo, Wayne and Wyoming coun- ties, and led the ticket in each of these counties by a plur- ality of 3,009. In the session of 1915-16 in the Senate, Mr. Goodykoontz was majority floor leader, and January 10, 1917, was elected president of the Senate, thus becoming ex-officio lieutenant governor of the state. He held that- office until December 1, 1918. Harris' Legislative Hand- book, 1918, gives him the distinction of being the first presi- dent of the Senate from whose rulings no appeal was ever taken.

November 5, 1918, as candidate of the republican party, he was elected to the Sixty-sixth Congress, over W. M. MeNeal, democrat, by 2,936 majority. November 2, 1920, he was reelected as a member of the Sixty-seventh Congress -again over Mr. MeNeal-by a majority of 6 799. The Fifth District, which he represents covers the Pocahontas coal field and is composed of the nine counties of Lincoln, Logan, MeDowell, Mercer, Mingo, Monroe, Summers, Wayne and Wyoming. Mr. Goodykoontz entered Congress when the republicans resumed control of the House, and he has been one of the active members during the protracted sessions of that body. He is a member of the Judiciary Committee, the lawyers committee of the House, having been assigned to this committee upon his entering Congress. It is seldom that a new member is permitted a membership on this major committee.

During the World war, Mr. Goodykoontz was chairman of the Central Committee of Lawyers that headed the West Virginia bar in assisting registrants and aiding, by advice and otherwise, soldiers and sailors, their families and de- pendents. In this connection Mr. Goodykoontz was anthor of the "Legal Booklet," of which 30,000_ copies were dis- tributed, giving information as to the more important laws, State and Federal, affecting soldiers and sailors.

Mr. Goodykoontz is a past master of the Williamson Masonic Lodge. On December 22, 1898, he married Miss Irene Hooper, of New Orleans.

SAMUEL V. WOODS. In the forty-one years since his ad- mission to the bar Samuel V. Woods has proved himself the possessor of many of the distinctive abilities of his honored father, the late Judge Samuel Woods, whose career is briefly given in sketch following.

In the broad field of general practice, particularly in chancery, and as a trial lawyer Samuel V. Woods has few equals.

He possesses a generous and abundant equipment and knowledge of the law, and his personal character, which is of the highest order, has combined to make his career a source of genuine puhlic service, though comparatively little of his time has been spent in public office.

He was born in Barbour County on the 31st of August, 1856, and was educated by private tutors, in the public schools, and at the West Virginia University.

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He studied law under his distinguished father, Judge Samuel Woods, and was examined before and admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of Appeals in 1881, upon the motion of William L. Wilson. Since that time he bas been a steady practitioner in the County of Barbour, where he has resided, and in other counties in that section of the state, and before the Supreme Court of Appeals.

He has handled a great volume of business covering an immense range in the practice of his profession. For many years in Barbour County nearly every important trial found him engaged therein on one side or the other, and he always acquitted himself with great credit and with a high degree of satisfaction to his clients.

A brief professional opinion of his work is as follows:

"In his court work he has always been distinguished for the thoroughness of his preparation, the tact of his exam- ination of witnesses, is accurate knowledge of all the de- tails of pleading and practice, and coolness and self poise, which he exhibits under circumstances of the most ad- verse and trying nature. As an advocate he is gifted with logical powers and a faculty of expression remarkably simple and lucid. His diction is clear and correct, his language forceful and pointed, and on all occasions he shows the power of an able public speaker and debator, and is an honorable, upright and reliable attorney."

Men who have been so fortunate as to come within the friendship or professional association of Samuel V. Woods pronounce him as one of the most genial men in all their acquaintance. He possesses and exhibits the courtesy of the old school gentleman, and his personal character and attainments give special force to this disposition.

He has always been interested in the discussion of political questions, and is an unusually forceful and eloquent platform speaker in the discussion of political questions and questions of public policy, and he has always been an earnest independent democrat. And while he has lived in a strongly republican county and republican senatorial and congressional district, he was elected to the State Senate in 1910, and for four years represented the Thir- teenth Senatorial District. While a member of the Senate, which was equally divided politically, he was unanimously elected president of the Senate, and under the constitution of this state he thereby hecame in effect lieutenant gov- ernor of West Virginia.

He was twice the democratic nominee for Congress in the Second Congressional District. He was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1900.

Mr. Woods has been a life long member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in 1916 was elected as a delegate to the General Conference, which is the law making body of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in 1920 he again served in the General Conference of the church.

Since 1903 Mr. Woods has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the West Virginia Wesleyan College at Buck- hannon, and has been consistently one of the most generous supporters of that institution, of which his distinguished father, Judge Samuel Woods, was one of the founders and for many years president of its Board of Trustees. He has from that College the degree of LL. D.

For the past fourteen years Mr. Woods has been the president of the Citizens National Bank of Philippi, the strongest and one of the oldest banking institutions in Barbour County, of which he was one of the founders and organizers.

Mr. Woods married on the 9th day of March, 1893, Miss Mollie Strickler, and they have had one child, Ruth Neeson Woods, who is now the wife of Arthur S. Dayton, a dis- tinguished member of the Philippi bar, and the only son of the late Judge Alston G. Dayton.

JUDGE SAMUEL WOODS was the son of Adam Woods and bis wife, Jane Long. They came to America in 1818 from the North of Ireland, and their people had come to the North of Ireland from the North of Scotland.

Samuel Woods was educated at Allegheny College, and graduated from that institution about 1846, at the head of his class, and he was thereafter made principal of the

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 105

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